1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to an image forming apparatus which has a special feature of receiving and processing image data divided into a plurality of pieces.
2. Description of Related Art
There have been conventionally provided printers that create print data based on image data received via a communication line, and print an image on a medium, such as paper, corresponding to the created print data. Recent years have seen significant advances in the communications technology, including communication between personal computers using the Internet. Electronic mail (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cmailxe2x80x9d) delivered over the Internet makes transmission and reception of image data very easy. Thus, printers capable of printing image data received over the Internet are conceivable.
A data file in the form of mail and created by converting image data is generally very large. Transmission and reception of such a file as mail will adversely affect the performance of the entire communication system. To reduce the data amount in the file, a technique may be used that divides the image data into a plurality of files to be sent as pieces of mail. In this case, however, a printer, upon receipt of such pieces of mail, forms separate images corresponding to the respective pieces of mail, failing to restore the undivided original image.
More specifically, as mail is delivered via various routes, instead of via a fixed route, the sequence of the divided pieces of image data may be changed, or unrelated mail may be placed between the divided pieces of image data. In this case, it is much more difficult to restore the undivided original image from the received divided pieces of image data.
In view of the foregoing, an object of the invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of readily restoring an undivided or complete original image from divided pieces of image data, which have been transmitted via a communication line.
First, in a preferred embodiment according to the invention, receiving means receives image data transmitted via a communication line. When first judging means judges that the received image data belongs to image data divided into a plurality of pieces, the received image data is stored in storage means. Then, restoration means restores an undivided original image data from the image data stored in the storage means. Finally, print data creation means creates print data based on the restored original image data.
Further, when second judging means judges that the received image data has accumulated to a predetermined amount in the storage means, the restoration means restores the undivided original image data from the stored image data.
In this configuration, because printing is only permitted when image data received as divided pieces of data has accumulated a predetermined amount, restoration of the undivided original image is readily made.
Further, the storage means for storing divided pieces of image data and the restoration means for restoring the undivided original image data are integrated in the image forming apparatus. Accordingly, the restoration of the undivided original image data can be accomplished by the image forming apparatus alone, requiring no operation of a computer connected thereto. Thus, the computer in the communication system is free from the restoration processing, and the performance of the entire communication system is enhanced.
It is noted that a predetermined amount of image data, which initiates printing, can be defined variously. For example, image data for one page or a piece of divided image data can be considered as a predetermined amount. Alternatively, if image data contains character strings indicating a drawing, such as xe2x80x9cFIG. 1xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cFIG. 2xe2x80x9d, and a carriage return mark indicating a paragraph, a block separated by such character strings or a carriage return mark can be a predetermined amount. In addition, the term xe2x80x9cimage dataxe2x80x9d used herein means not only data in an image file, such as data transmitted by a fax machine, but also data written in a page description language.